Our 52 finalists from Round 1 must give their all to stay in the competition and secure one of three winning spots in each vertical. In a 5-minute closed pitch session, the entrepreneurs face a group of jurors who will determine whether or not they move on to the final round in the competition.
In preparation for this, >>venture>> has partnered up with McKinsey & Company and several investors to best prepare the startups for their pitch session.
We're really excited to announce that we are working with the following industry experts for the 2022 >>venture>> pitch training.
Andrew Loan: A communications consultant with a flair for storytelling, change management and impactful presentation, Andrew draws on over 20 years’ experience at the frontline of corporate communications to help organizations in the DACH region ‘dejargonate’ their corporate messaging. A former McKinsey communications specialist and journalist, Andrew has also served companies in the financial, healthcare, energy, marketing, IT and sports sectors. He holds a Master’s degree in Modern Languages and Economics from the University of Glasgow.
Bernardo Bizzini: Bernardo joined investiere in October 2018 and is currently working as an investment associate. He graduated in Biotechnology from ETH Zürich and holds a Master in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Cambridge. Further, he was active in several positions in the pharma industry where he co-developed an NLP-based data analysis software. At investiere, Bernardo partially focuses on data management systems and executed multiple ICT transactions such as guuru, Avrios and AlgoTrader.
Claudius Stammbach: Claudius is an investment manager at Sparrow Ventures, the VC arm of Migros. Within this role, he sources, executes, and manages strategic investments (B2C and mostly DACH region) for the Migros Group while advising Sparrow's venture building team in financial planning and analysis. Previously, Claudius worked at Credit Suisse in financial crime compliance and as a research assistant at UZH, holding a master’s degree in Banking and Finance.
Fariba Hashemi: Fariba has 25 years of experience in Economics research and higher education and holds a doctorate in Economics from the University of California in Los Angeles. Currently she is an ETH Lecturer at ETH Zurich, teaching Entrepreneurial Investments. In parallel to her academic engagements, Fariba is a member of the Investment Committee of Salus Partners SA - a regulated and independent Swiss Investment firm based in Lausanne/Zurich. She specializes in spatio-temporal patterns to identify and develop optimal investment strategies
Frédéric Lauchenauer: Frédéric is a managing partner at Norman Venture Office and an angel investor. He has a broad industry experience in project management and supply chain, having worked for Givaudan, Syngenta and Monsanto. As a Business Angel he has invested in several start-ups ranging from the Tech industry to local businesses without a tech component, and has an interest in new technologies such as Blockchain, AI and AR/VR, AgTech and their applications across different industries.
Jiri Havran: Jiri joined Seed X in July 2019. Currently, he is working as a senior investment manager, focusing mainly on FinTech and PropTech early-stage investments. Prior to Seed X, Jiri was responsible for M&A and business development at eBay, covering EMEA. He also spent a couple of years at Credit Suisse working on private equity deals. He holds a Master’s degree in Energy Science and Technology from ETH Zürich.
Rafaela Marinho: Rafaela is a multilingual communications specialist from McKinsey & Company.
Her experience spans through journalism, corporate communications, and management consulting. She is also trained in storytelling, design thinking, change management, efficient presentation, and community management.